Industry is consistently moving away from wood and metal structural members and panels, particularly in the vehicle manufacturing industry. Such wood and metal structural members and panels have high weight to strength ratios. In other words, the higher the strength of the wood and metal structural members and panels, the higher the weight. The resulting demand for alternative material structural members and panels has, thus, risen proportionately. Because of their low weight to strength ratios, as well as their corrosion resistance, such non-metallic panels have become particularly useful as structural members in the vehicle manufacturing industry as well as office structures industry, for example.
Often such non-metallic materials are in the form of composite structures or panels which are moldable into three-dimensional shapes for use in any variety of purposes. It would, thus, be beneficial to provide a composite material structure that has high strength using oriented and/or non-oriented fibers with bonding agents having compatible chemistries to provide a strong bond across the composite's layers. It would be further beneficial to provide a manufacturing and finish coating process for such structures in some embodiments.
It will be appreciated that the prior art includes many types of laminated composite panels and manufacturing processes for the same. U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,253, filed on Mar. 30, 1984, entitled High Impact Strength Fiber Resin Matrix Composites, U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,804, filed on May 22, 1990, entitled Interleaf Layer Fiber Reinforced Resin Laminate Composites, U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,206 B1, filed on Sep. 14, 1998, entitled Composite Honeycomb Sandwich Panel for Fixed Leading Edges, U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,925, filed on May 10, 1996, entitled Multi-Layered Panel Having a Core Including Natural Fibers and Method of Producing the Same, U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,947, filed Oct. 5, 1981, entitled Laminated Composite Structure and Method of Manufacture, U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,087, filed on Mar. 13, 1992, entitled Method of Making a Composite Structure, U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,903, filed on Sep. 16, 1993, entitled Automotive Headliner Panel and Method of Making Same, U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,583, filed on Nov. 14, 1991, entitled Method of and Apparatus for Continuously Fabricating Laminates, U.S. Pat. No. 4,466,847, filed on May 6, 1983, entitled Method for the Continuous Production of Laminates, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,256, filed on May 17, 1994, entitled Method of Making a Headliner and the Like, are all incorporated herein by reference to establish the nature and characteristics of such laminated composite panels and manufacturing processes herein.
A portion of the following disclosure is related to high strength high heat deflection panels. Illustratively, random or woven fibers can be bonded and formed into a panel or mat using a combination of nucleated and coupled polypropylene. The nucleating agent may provide increased heat deflection and the coupling agent may provide high strength to the fiber panel. Other embodiments of the present disclosure may include a fiber panel comprising natural and/or synthetic fibers bonded together using nucleated polypropylene. An alternative embodiment includes a natural and/or synthetic fiber panel comprising a coupling agent and polypropylene to bind the fibers together.
The following disclosure further provides a structural mat for manufacturing a moldable structural hardboard panel. The structural mat comprises a nucleated/coupled binder and a fibrous material. The nucleated/coupled binder material comprises: a first binder material combined with a nucleating agent; and a second binder material combined with a coupling agent. The first binder material is combined with the nucleating agent to make a discrete nucleated/binder material. The second binder material is combined with the coupling agent to make a discrete coupled/binder material. The discrete nucleated/binder material and the discrete coupled/binder material are blended together. The fibrous material is blended with the discrete nucleated/binder material and the discrete coupled/binder material to form the structural mat.
In the above and other illustrative embodiments, the structural mat may further comprise: the first and second binder materials each being polypropylene; both the discrete nucleated/binder material and the discrete coupled/binder material are in fibrous form; the first binder material combined with the nucleating agent further comprises about 4% nucleating agent with the balance being the first binder material; the second binder material combined with the coupling agent further comprises about 5% coupling agent with the balance being the first binder material; the mat comprises about 25% discrete nucleated/binder material; the mat comprises about 25% discrete coupled/binder material; the mat comprises about 50% fibrous material; the mat comprises about 25% discrete nucleated/binder material with about 2% of the structural mat being the nucleating agent, about 25% discrete coupled/binder material with about 2.5% of the structural mat being the coupling agent, and about 50% fibrous material; the nucleating agent being an aluminosilicate glass; the coupling agent being maleic anhydride; the discrete nucleated/binder material and the discrete coupled/binder material are blended homogeneously; the fibrous material being a randomly-oriented fibrous material; the randomly-oriented fibrous material being a natural fiber material; and the fibrous material being a woven material.
Another illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure provides a structural panel having high strength and high heat deflection properties. The panel comprises a rigid body comprised of solidified nucleated/coupled binder material and fibrous material. Both materials are dispersed throughout the thickness of the body. The solidified nucleated/coupled binder is formulated from a nucleated material with a binder, and a coupled material with a binder.
In the above and other illustrative embodiments, the structural panel may further comprise: the nucleated/coupled binder material comprising polypropylene; about 50% nucleated/coupled polypropylene which comprises about 4% nucleating agent and about 5% coupling agent, and about 50% fibrous material; the nucleating agent being an aluminosilicate glass; the coupling agent being maleic anhydride; the fibrous material being a randomly-oriented fibrous material; the randomly-oriented fibrous material being a natural fiber material; the fibrous material is a woven material; the nucleated/coupled polypropylene being in a concentration from about 40% to 50%; the fibrous material being in a concentration from about 50% to 60%.
Another illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method of making a structural mat for manufacturing a moldable structural hardboard panel. The method comprising the steps of: combining a nucleating agent with a first polypropylene material; forming a solid fibrous combination of nucleating agent and first polypropylene material; combining a coupling agent with a second polypropylene material, separate from the blended nucleating agent and first polypropylene material; forming a solid fibrous combination of coupling agent and second polypropylene material; blending the solid fibrous combination of nucleating agent and first polypropylene material with the solid fibrous combination of coupling agent and second polypropylene material; blending a fiber material with the blended solid fibrous combination of nucleating agent and first polypropylene material and solid fibrous combination of coupling agent and second polypropylene material; and forming a structural mat by combination of the fiber material with blended solid fibrous combination of nucleating agent and first polypropylene material and solid fibrous combination of coupling agent and second polypropylene material.
In the above and other illustrative embodiments, the method may further comprise the steps of: formulating the nucleating agent and first polypropylene material with about 4% nucleating agent and the balance being the first polypropylene material; formulating the coupling agent and second polypropylene material with about 5% coupling agent and the balance being the second polypropylene material; providing about 25% nucleating agent and first polypropylene material; providing about 25% coupling agent and second polypropylene material; providing about 50% fibrous material; providing about 25% nucleating agent and first polypropylene material with about 2% of the structural mat being the nucleating agent, about 25% coupling agent and second polypropylene material with about 2.5% of the structural mat being the coupling agent, and about 50% fibrous material; blending the nucleating agent and first polypropylene material and the coupling agent and second polypropylene material homogeneously; providing the nucleating agent and first polypropylene material and the coupling agent and second polypropylene material in a concentration from about 40% to 50%; providing the fibrous material in a concentration from about 50% to 60%; heating the structural mat to at least the melt temperature of the first and second polypropylene material; asserting pressure to the structural mat; and forming a hardboard body from the mat.
Additional features and advantages of this disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of illustrated embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out such embodiments as presently perceived.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. The exemplification set out herein illustrates several embodiments, and such exemplification is not to be construed as limiting the scope of this disclosure in any manner.